A number of studies have suggested that the use of essential oils or aromatherapy can improve memory and cognitive functioning.
One recent study, for example, found that nightly aromatherapy significantly improved the memory of older adults. This experiment asked healthy men and women between the ages of 60 and 85 to use an aromatherapy diffuser for two hours every night, rotating through seven different essential oils: rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender. After six months, those who had been exposed to the essential oils overnight scored 226 percent higher on a word list recall than those in a control group.
“The olfactory sense is the only sense that has direct access to the memory centers of the brain, and olfactory enrichment is a good way to stimulate those centers with little effort,” says Michael Leon, PhD, lead author on the study and professor emeritus of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California in Irvine.
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